<i>Decision of Note:</i> 'Buck Rogers' Dilution Claim Remains in Play

In 1942, to settle litigation between them, the widow of Buck Rogers creator Philip Francis Nowlan assigned intellectual property rights, including “Buck Rogers” trademarks, to the John F. Dille Co., for whose National Newspaper Service the late Nowlan had come up with the Rogers character. But the Dille and Nowlan trusts nevertheless have battled for years over Buck Rogers trademark rights.

The Dille Trust currently claims that a Nowlan Trust agent pitched a Buck Rogers pilot script and series character “bible” to the Sy-Fy Network. As to the Dille Trust's false designation of origin claim under '43(a) of the Lanham Act, Pennsylvania federal District Judge Wendy Beetlestone found “to the extent that Plaintiff alleges that Defendant marketed the script and series bible as discrete products to Sy-Fy and other networks, these items constitute 'tangible products sold in the marketplace,' and therefore qualify as 'goods' under the Lanham Act.” But Judge Beetlestone added “future movies or television series are neither 'tangible,' nor 'sold in the marketplace' because they do not yet exist as discrete products. Plaintiff cannot overcome the hypothetical nature of these products by basing its claim on the 'rights' to produce them because ' intangible rights are specifically excluded from the purview of the Lanham Act.”